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Dockside friendship between woman, sunfish reaches nine years
“Greenie” the sunfish waits by the dock for Holly Jorgensen, swims with her and jumps out of the water for treats.
MINNESOTA, USA — Editor’s note: This story originally aired Sept. 6, 2020.
This spring, just after ice out, Greenie the sunfish once again returned to Holly’s dock. This marks the ninth summer Holly and Greenie will spend together.
Holly is currently writing a book about their adventures. She’s titled it, “Greenie & the Girl: an Enchanted Fish Memoir for all Generations.” For more information, here’s a link to Hollie’s blog.
Most Minnesota encounters with sunfish come at the end of line.
Holly Jorgensen has encounters of another kind.
“Digging for worms for a treat for Greenie,” Holly says as she scoops up soil with her shovel.
Clasping in her hand a wiggly bowl, Holly walks onto a wobbly wooden dock while scanning the lake around her.
“There he is,” she says.
A sunfish looks up at Holly from a few inches under the water.
“Hi, sweetie,” Holly says, greeting Greenie. As much as a fish can show emotion, the sunny seems pleased to see her.
Holly puts her hands into the water. Other fish dart away. Greenie comes closer.
“Hi, honey,” Holly says to Greenie.
Holly wasn’t looking for a pal when she first locked eyes with the green sunfish just off her dock.
“But he looked at me like I’ve never had a fish look at me,” she says.
From fish eyes, grew a fast friendship.
Holly holds out one of the newly harvested worms.
“Can you jump?” she asks Greenie.
Moments later, he complies, coming up from the deep to jump for Holly’s treat.
“He sure does seem like a special fish,” Holly says. “He just acts different from other fish.”
Even before Holly began serving snacks, Greenie would be waiting at the dock when she arrived for her daily swims.
“Why he in particular recognizes me and looks at me the way he does and follows me around, I don’t know. But it’s wonderful,” Holly says.
Each spring, Holly waits for ice out. For five straight years, Greenie has been back at the dock when open water returns.
“And I go, ‘Wow, he made it through another winter,’” Holly says.
Greenie isn’t alone in the lake. A smaller sunfish Holly named Spot used to tag along with Greenie. Then, a bass named Slim became a frequent Greenie cohort.
But only Greenie seems to enjoy the chin rubs Holly regularly administers.
Greenie is large by sunfish standards, large enough the fill a medium-sized frying pan. For obvious reasons, Holly asked that we not divulge the location of her lake.
“Actually,” she says, “last Friday night, he showed up and he had a hook in his mouth, and my heart just sank.”
Holly held Greenie in her hands as she gently pushed on the hook.
“And I just very, very carefully backed it out and put him back in the water,” Holly says. “And then we were both relieved.”
When Holly swims to the other side of the lake, Greenie has been known to tag along.
Often, she lingers in the water, shoulders-deep, near the dock, as Greenie swims around her.
“People complain about no entertainment, no movies, no bars, no restaurants — I could care less,” Holly says. “I’ve got this.”
So enamored is Holly, she wrote Greenie a poem.
“To have a friend who’s not like me is to swim in the sky and fly in the sea,” Holly recites.
She titled the poem, “Diversity.”
“It’s entering someone else’s world,” she says.
For many Minnesotans, sunfish remain a nice catch.
But in the most stressful of years, Greenie gives Holly Jorgenson her release.
“You’re the boss, aren’t you?” Holly tells Greenie as she looks down from the dock into the lake. “You’re the boss.”
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The University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center confirms the adult female bird is still under evaluation and undergoing tests.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The bald eagle has long been a symbol of strength.
But when America’s bird needed some help, a Wisconsin teenager was there to save it.
Fifteen-year-old Grant Fortney was fishing with his dad on Sunday at Mary Park in New Richmond, Wisconsin when they first noticed the bird overhead.
“And then she goes down into the water to go for a fish, probably, and then once she was in the water, she wouldn’t go back up,” said Fortney. “Eagles shouldn’t be in the water that long, so something has to be wrong.”
A closer look and it was clear the bird was covered in moss, entangled in weeds and getting tired.
“The moss was everywhere and it was all around her feet, so it had no ability to get up,” said Fortney. “It was on its back, so I think the moss would have taken it all the way down eventually.”
Fortney used his oar to clean off the mess and support the eagle’s feet. The bird would eventually find his footing on the front of Fortney’s boat and stay there until they got to shore. A volunteer from the Raptor Center – University of Minnesota helped them from there.
At one point, Fortney said the bird seemed confused and scared, and got stuck under a dock at the park’s boat launch.
“I was scared, not going to lie,” said Fortney. “I was worried she was going to come at me because I’m sitting right in the front with her.”
The teenager, known for his hard work at Gibby’s restaurant in town, also has a big heart, according to his mom, Angela Tellijohn.
“He first said, a new pet and I’m like, what,” said Tellijohn, remembering her son’s text with video of the rescue. “Then when he told me he rescued it, I mean, that’s just a cool story.”
It’s one that the Fortney family hopes has a happy ending.
“Makes me think what a caring heart he really has and we need more of that,” said Tellijohn.
“Hopefully it’ll make a full recovery and I’ll be able to watch it take back off to her home,” said Fortney.
The Raptor Center confirms the bald eagle is an adult female and currently in the hospital. The spokesperson says she has some superficial wounds and still lethargic. Hospital staff say they’re running more tests to find an answer and provide her with expert care to recover.
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Sheriff Joe Leko says the accused driver was going more than 100 mph on Highway 52 near Inver Grove Heights.
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. — A Dakota County squad car is totaled and a park ranger is recovering after the sheriff says a speeding driver hit the vehicle from behind Sunday morning near Inver Grove Heights.
Sheriff Joe Leko says the park ranger behind the wheel is lucky to be alive after the crash sent him careening into the ditch and into a guardrail.
Leko says the incident stared Sunday around 1:30 a.m. The suspect and another driver are first caught on traffic cameras on Highway 52 as the two leave West St. Paul. The cameras show them speeding for nearly three miles until the collision happens near Interstate 494.
There was also another park ranger following the squad in a truck.
“The first vehicle tried to get between them and ended up hitting one of our park rangers that was in the left lane, sending him into the median, striking a guardrail and then a cable barrier,” said Leko.
He says the suspects were traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour.
After the crash, Leko says the suspects took off. The rangers were shaken, but not deterred and determined to track them down.
“The awareness of one of our park rangers to get a license plate of one of the vehicles led us on this investigation and brought us to where we’re at today, which is having the two drivers identified,” said Leko.
Data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows speeding increased particularly during the pandemic and it hasn’t really stopped since.
“We need to get in front of that and identify who’s doing that, and bring it to an end before somebody gets hurt,” said Leko.
The ranger who was hurt had minor injuries. The sheriff says the suspects are 20 and 23 years old. The investigation helped track the two down and the sheriff expects them to be charged on Friday.
“Speed matters and it can have consequences if you’re not obeying them,” said Leko. “It doesn’t take much to push somebody in the ditch and lose control.”
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist:
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Trials have shown the drug – which will be sold under the brand name Kisunla – slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 35%.
MINNEAPOLIS — An announcement by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week is creating its own form of fireworks for families affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
On Tuesday, the FDA announced its long-awaited approval of the Eli Lilly drug, donanemab. Trials have shown the drug – which will be sold under the brand name Kisunla – slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 35% by attacking what’s considered a hallmark of the disease: protein in the brain called amyloid plaque.
And despite potentially life-threatening side effects – which include brain swelling and brain bleeding – Alzheimer’s family advocates in Minnesota and throughout the country welcome the development.
“It just continues to mean hope,” said Kanada Yazbek of Ramsey, Minnesota.
Yazbek – who was named 2024 Advocate of the Year by the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement – was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) at only age 41 and is the seventh member of her extended family to be diagnosed with MCI or Alzheimer’s disease. Yazbek told KARE 11’s Karla Hult announcements like these give concrete hope to families like hers.
“When we had the last drug approval, we hadn’t had something for 30 years, and we get that drug approval, and my 12-year-old is like, ‘Does that mean you’re going to live longer?’ And that’s exactly what it means. It means people are not only going to live longer with these diseases but have a better quality of life, too,” Yazbek said on Wednesday, which was also her 50th birthday.
Experts have often noted that the ultimate treatment of Alzheimer’s may well be a “cocktail” of medicines, not unlike how HIV/AIDS is treated today. Given that, advocates believe donanemab – and the related class of drugs – may be one piece of the greater puzzle.
To learn more about the Alzheimer’s Association and other resources available for those living with Alzheimer’s and other dementia, click here.
NOTE: KARE 11’s Karla Hult is herself a fierce fighter for families affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementia through So Many Goodbyes, which she founded after losing her own dad to the disease in 2019.
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